


Let the Credits Roll

by cancerthecrabbo



Category: Fright Night (2011)
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence, Charley's Got It, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, He's Got Problems, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mentioned Paranoia, OT3, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sleep Deprivation, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 11:18:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11554089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cancerthecrabbo/pseuds/cancerthecrabbo
Summary: "He just gets anxious and scared and out of his mind and sometimes he can't quite tell the difference between their kitchen at 4 am and the basement where he almost died.  But he's fine, really, he's okay."Charley likes to lie to himself.





	Let the Credits Roll

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short little thing here. An itty bitty canon-divergence at the very end of the movie. By the way, Charley is a senior in high school in the movie and post-canon is 18 or older (early birthday perhaps?) like most freshly graduated high schoolers. So the Charley/Vincent isn't underage.
> 
> There's a slight chance I might add another chapter if inspiration strikes, who knows. It'll probably be a snapshot of sorts.
> 
> Rest in peace, Anton.

They drop off the face of the earth.  Only Charley's mother knows that they're even alive, but she doesn't know where they really are.  Charley makes up some crap about taking a road trip around the country after finishing high school.  The fact that he brought up how he broke several ribs and almost died at the hands of a creature that will continue to give him horrific nightmares for the rest of his life really helped convince her.

 

Now Peter, Amy, and Charley are living comfortably and safely in a very large house.

 

It has been 3 weeks since the end of school, and a month and a half since the vampire fiasco and Charley still wakes up screaming.  Amy and Peter are incredibly patient with him - seeing as they wake up from their own night terrors similarly.  But Charley seems to be struggling the most.  He constantly looks over his shoulder when he's alone and gives himself headaches and dizziness from sheer paranoia and anxiety.  What's most embarrassing is that he's afraid of the dark like some schoolboy.  They tell him it's natural that after an ordeal like that, and that a reminder of the worst day of his life would do that to him.  Charley nods weakly every time they reassure him that he is in no way a coward but he knows that they see through it.

 

He also doesn't like sleeping anymore, not unless he's taken a pill so that he sleeps long enough that the hectic process of waking up is worth it.  He doesn't want to get addicted, though, so he usually just doesn't sleep.  He stays awake until he drops from exhaustion - sometimes literally - which has taken its own toll on his body along with the anxiety and, most likely, PTSD.  The event was traumatic, Charley would admit that much, but PTSD happens to soldiers or people that go through much worse than him.  Sure, his girlfriend tried to kill him after he saw her get taken by a homicidal vampire and thought that she was dead.  And, yeah, he was trapped in a ray of sunlight, surrounded by more homicidal vampires so his very life depended on the sun which would he knew go down at one point.  As an added bonus he got tossed around viciously and mercilessly while on fire to the point where he passed out along the way (to this day he still can't remember if it was from the pain or his head hitting the ceiling and floor repeatedly).

 

But he doesn't have post-traumatic stress disorder.  He just gets anxious and scared out of his mind and sometimes he can't quite tell the difference between their kitchen at 4 am and the basement where he almost died.  But he's fine, really, he's okay.

 

Well actually at the moment he's chugging down water because he's hungry but the very thought of food makes him nauseated.  And it's good for his throat because minutes earlier he was mangling it with terrified screams.  Amy and Peter are sitting on either side of him, each with an arm around him and watching TV.  It's 3 am and they're watching a rerun of a comic book movie with him even though they were both sound asleep before he woke them up.  And they aren't even irritated.  In fact, Peter is gently scratching his fingers through Charley's curls and Amy is kneading his hand, occasionally pressing a kiss to his palm.

 

Charley leans his head back against the couch and closes his eyes, and tries to sear the feeling of Peter and Amy's warm bodies squished next to him and the sound of the tv murmuring.


End file.
